BOURNEMOUTH council has pledged to "learn lessons" from the controversial Castle Lane West roadworks scheme, after both phases were hit with significant delays.

Fed-up Castle Lane resident Stuart Griffiths contacted the council after it heralded the completion of the Government-funded Three Towns Travel scheme in its BH Life magazine, despite the fact work was still continuing.

And he received a lengthy reply from head of transportation services Ian Kalra, explaining the reasons why both phase one and two overran.

Phase one was supposed to finish in August 2014, before the new school year started, but took a month longer than planned. And phase two was supposed to finish this April but has only just been completed.

Mr Kalra said there had been "a series of issues" that had contributed to the overrun. These included:

* Significant additional excavation and surfacing work required to improve the condition of Castle Lane West and ensure no further maintenance was needed for many years. This extra work was mainly focussed around the East Way junction.

* A number of unforeseen events occurred with utility company plant, including the need to extend and lower gas pipes before a new drainage system could be installed.

* A last-minute request by a communication company and water company to install new ductwork in the southern footway.

* A fault in a 11KV cable that supplies Castlepoint that resulted in the need to excavate the new footway and bus shelter supply pillar.

"Lessons are always learned from every project and Castle Lane West is no exception," he said. "Design details are under constant review, particularly with schemes such as this where quite a lot of innovation has been included and site procedures reassessed regularly.

"The difficulty with implementing highway schemes is that despite carrying out extensive site investigation and survey work during the design process, there are frequently a host of unforeseen events that occur and underground obstacles and conditions that are encountered when construction work starts which are often totally unpredictable."

He added that the delays would now be assessed and if any part of the overrun was down to the contractor then "delay damages" would be taken from their payment.

He also said that the information contained in BH Life had had to be signed off well in advance of publication and they had made an "honest forecast" that the Castle Lane West works would be finished by the time the magazine was distributed.